Sugar production up despite set-backs

THE South African Cane Growers’ Association (SA Canegrowers) hosted its 90th Annual General Meeting at the association’s head office in Mount Edgecombe on Wednesday.

Celebrating the landmark year since the Association was founded on 9 August 1927, outgoing Chairman Tim Murray reminded growers that while the challenges facing the industry had intensified, they were not that different from those identified almost a century ago.

According to Murray, the crippling drought continued for most of 2016 resulting in the 2016-2017 season being one of the toughest experienced in the history of the South African sugar industry.

The relatively small crop also meant that farmers did not make good returns and this had the risk of putting some farmers out of business.

During the 2016-2017season 14 sugar mills crushed a crop of 15 074 610 tons of cane which was 213 215 tons more than the 2015-2016 crop.

The total saleable sugar amounted to 1 539 739 tons of which 1 534 741 tons were sold on the local market, leaving no sugar available for export.

Another challenge the year under review was the high concentration of eldana in the Midlands and the emergence of the Long Horn Beetle in the eShowe and Entumeni regions.

The sugarcane growing sector highlighted diversification as a key focus area, but expressed disappointment at the rate at which ethanol, cogeneration and biofuels regulations were progressing.

The board of SA Canegrowers for the 2017-2018 season is: Graeme Stainbank (Chairman), Rex Talmage (Vice-Chairman), David Littley, Sabelo Magagula, Thulani Majozi, Sam Mashaba, Tim Murray, Suresh Naidoo, Greg Nelson, Dipuo Ntuli, Andrew Russell, Roy Sharma, Grant Taylor and Walter Visser.

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